Crow's Secret
by Kiwikida
Summary: Crow has a small secret with Jack that he's been keeping from everyone else. Squabbleshipping


**I may have stolen this idea from my friend but I'll send this to her anyway so that she knows I made a point to credit her~**

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Crow stared at the letters on the page, reading them out one by one whilst Jack watched quietly. It was their little secret that no-one had to know about quite yet.

"U-um...Jack..." Crow would stutter, clear hesitance shown on his face. He was scared to ask for help, but Jack had been doing this without comments for quite a while.

Jack shuffled closer to his friend, monitoring the page and looking at where Crow was struggling, "Is it that word?"

Crow just nodded in response.

"That's what the word 'purpose' looks like," Jack explained, spelling it out afterwards, letter by letter, until it was drilled into Crow's memory.

"Ah..."

"Can you read the sentence for me?" He would push, staring at Crow.

Crow struggled. He squinted his eyes, murmuring the words to himself before trying to speak out loud. Each word was like a foreign tongue, it was almost alien, but he did manage to form the sentence. Even if it was slow.

"T-...the...fox...'s...p...purpose...is to...h-hunt...down...the...ra...ra-...rabbit..."

"Good..." The blonde smiled, putting a reassuring hand on the other's shoulder, "you don't have to be so scared, Crow."

"You _know_ how embarrassed I get, Jack..." Crow murmured, "I can't read...I talk simply...I'm not even educated...Not like you..."

"Hey, don't forget, if I hadn't been lured by Goodwin I'd be as uneducated as you!"

"Jack..." Crow glared up at his 'teacher', "you're not helping me get over this. Even Yusei had almost no teachers and he...he's still-"

"We both know that to get to Yusei's level of smarts we'd have to have his Father, and as much as I like Yusei I wouldn't want to be related to him."

Crow laughed dryly, as if it was forced. This made Jack frown, but he refused to say anything more. Crow already seemed depressed about this whole 'no-education' fiasco, and it wasn't a short-term thing, either. In fact, Jack had been educating Crow since the day he had come back into the team. Yusei was oblivious to what happened. Crow had personally _asked_ Jack to educate him, no matter how much of a blow his pride took. The fact that Jack hadn't made fun of it yet only hurt Crow more.

He would sit there in silence for a while. Crow didn't know what to say, but he did know how he felt. Jack, changing the topic onto how Yusei was educated just made him hurt. Crow was fully aware of how incapable he was with everything, and how he really did need Jack's help. It hurt a lot to even admit that.

Crow suddenly whispered, after the long silence, "Why...why haven't you said it?" His voice was gradually becoming like a crescendo as he spoke, turning to face Jack with tears in his eyes.

Jack was clearly taken aback, moving the younger off of him and frowning, "What do you want me to say?"

Crow almost growled.

"Why haven't you commented on it? Made a snide remark like you always do?! WHY HAVEN'T YOU TOLD ME HOW STUPID I AM YET, SO STUPID THAT I CAN'T EVEN READ AND WRITE?!"

There was a moment of silence; a moment of small, almost formed tears, and a moment of understanding. Crow let go of Jack's collar that he didn't realise he was holding, recoiled and turned his head to the side. A small trace of water ran down his cheeks. It burned.

"I haven't said anything because this is the most vulnerable I've seen you."

Crow didn't look at Jack. He just let him continue.

"The most vulnerable I've seen you, Crow, is when you asked me to teach you how to read and write, and do simple things that normal people can do...you were so vulnerable that I couldn't say no, and when you actually _allowed_ me to tell you how to do things...you were even _more_ vulnerable. Your pride had been hit, Crow, and you kept coming back. You kept coming back, despite all of that, and I...I haven't been mean to you for being strong before. I would never do that."

It took a long time before Crow could actually speak again. He was shaking - probably from his tears - and looked as if he was about to suddenly burst into an emotional volcano. But he didn't. Instead, Crow meekly angled himself in a perfect line with Jack, looking up at him with a less passionate glare than before.

"I...I'm sorry for yelling at you." Was all he could manage.

"It's not a problem..." Jack mumbled, almost unwillingly, "But, Crow," he added, now smiling, "your secret is safe with me."

"I know that, now. C-can we get back to...what we were supposed to be doing?"

"Sure. Let's clean your face up first, though, you look like a wreck."

Crow chuckled and allowed Jack to run his hand over his cheek, clearing the still burning stains of his tears. It took them a while to actually part from each other, move to the kitchen and clean Crow's face.

One thing's for certain, though. A new secret was born that day.

A secret about how Jack and Crow discovered a new bond. A special, little secret.

Just like Crow's secret.


End file.
